Press Review

“Aravot” blasts “extreme reactions” in Armenia to an anti-Armenian resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh which is expected to be adopted soon by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. “Oppositionists say, of course, that it is the end of the world and sufficient grounds for regime change that would allow them to come to power, save the nation and -- why not? -- the entire humankind,” editorializes the paper. “The authorities, for their part, are saying: ‘Don’t pay attention [to the PACE resolution,] it’s a shallow thing, a bunch of corrupt European parliamentarians who just gathered and drew up something that will have no legal force.’ But if the PACE’s Political Committee is so unimportant then we should not spend our scarce budgetary funds on sending our parliamentarians to various European cities to participate in various events in the first place.”

“Hraparak” says that the PACE will debate the draft resolution at its next plenary session in Strasbourg in January. The paper blames members of the Armenian parliamentary delegation at the PACE -- and deputy speaker Hermine Naghdalian in particular -- for the resolution’s approval by the PACE Political Committee. It dismisses their arguments that the document will have no legal force even if it is passed by the full PACE.

“Hayots Ashkhar” comments on declared plans by the New Armenia alliance of radical opposition forces to launch a nationwide campaign of “civil disobedience” on December 1, five days before the referendum on President Serzh Sarkisian’s constitutional amendments. The pro-presidential paper rejects as “lies and falsification” New Armenia leaders’ claims that citizens’ “right to rebel” is guaranteed by the Armenian constitution and international conventions.

“Zhamanak” is concerned over some $450 million in fresh loans that have been extended to the Armenian government by various multilateral lending institutions over the past week. “The most worrying thing is that Armenia is borrowing for subsisting or, so to speak, maintaining macroeconomic stability, rather than implementing development projects,” writes the paper. “That means Armenia has started living on credit, with the state debt now being equivalent to half of our GDP.”

“According to reliable sources, the Armenian government is considering issuing more Eurobonds and thereby increasing our foreign debt by $500-700 million next year,” reports “Haykakan Zhamanak.” The paper notes that the government has already sold $1.2 billion worth of Eurobonds in the last several years. “These are quite expensive loans with annual interest rates of about 7 percent,” it says, warning that the next dollar-denominated bonds could have even higher yields.